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SILVERSTONE, England – McLaren’s Lando Norris is ready to take the fight to Max Verstappen after driving his new car for the first time on Thursday. Norris, the Formula One runner-up last season to Red Bull’s four-time world champion, told reporters at Silverstone he has already shown he can beat the Dutch driver and plans to be smarter and sharper after last year’s clashes. “I need to get my elbows out, and I need to show that I’m not going to willingly give him any positions,” Norris said. “I also have to be a smart driver. You have to be a smart driver to go up against Max. Source link

The Maritime Self-Defense Force said Thursday that it has begun the Pacific Steller joint exercise with the U.S. and French navies in the Pacific Ocean east of the Philippines. This is the first drill involving MSDF vessels along with U.S. and French aircraft carriers. From Japan, the MSDF destroyer Kaga, which is becoming a de facto aircraft carrier, and others joined the exercise. It is unusual for Japan to conduct a drill with aircraft carriers of other countries in the sea area. The joint drill, which will last until Tuesday, is apparently aimed at keeping China in check. Participating in the drill were patrol aircraft and a total of 11 vessels including the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and the French Navy’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier. It is the first time since the 1960s that a French aircraft carrier has been deployed to the Pacific. On Thursday, two vessels belonging to the aircraft carrier strike group centered on the Charles de Gaulle called at the U.S. naval facility White Beach in Uruma, Okinawa Prefecture. The port call was part of efforts to strengthen cooperation with allies and friendly countries in the Indo-Pacific region, in light of China’s increasing assertiveness. The joint exercise included antisubmarine and antiaircraft combat training, MSDF officials said. The MSDF plans to upgrade the Kaga into an aircraft carrier by operating it with F-35B fighter jets. Last year, the destroyer underwent a major renovation of its bow and conducted landing tests with U.S. military aircraft. Source link

The New York Jets have informed veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers that they are moving on without him. “Last week we met with Aaron and shared that our intention was to move in a different direction at quarterback,” Jets head coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey said in a statement released by the team on Thursday. “It was important to have this discussion now to provide clarity and enable each of us the proper time to plan for our respective futures. We want to thank him for the leadership, passion, and dedication he brought to the organization and wish him success moving forward.” Source link

At a Feb. 12 briefing, Meta outlined a recently disrupted romance scam that originated in Cambodia and targeted people in Chinese and Japanese languages. Source link

Paris – Expat “mumfluencers” are taking to TikTok to sing the praises of life in Saudi Arabia and to extol the virtues of its new Neom megacity, filming their idyllic lives spent picnicking by turquoise waters and shopping in gleaming malls. “If you have children, Saudi Arabia is the best place,” Aida McPherson, an Azerbaijani born in London, told her almost 60,000 followers as she filmed her daughter in traditional Saudi dress on a shopping trip. Around a dozen expat mothers have posted similar glowing accounts of the far-from-finished Neom project in the desert championed by the kingdom’s de-facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, despite concerns about continued rights violations in the country and alleged abuse of migrant building workers. Source link

At the end of last year, a deadly outbreak in a remote part of the Democratic Republic of Congo sparked global panic when it was dubbed “Disease X.” The real culprit wasn’t a new mystery illness, but a severe form of a known killer: Malaria complicated by respiratory infections, malnutrition and a lack of access to primary health care services. The headlines have since moved on, but malaria remains a relentless threat, killing nearly 600,000 people in 2023 — most of them children under 5. That is more than 1,000 young lives lost every day to a disease we know how to treat. That means that lifesaving medicines still aren’t reaching those in need. To change that, considerations around access must be baked in from the beginning, starting with the R & D phase and through each stage of a medical products’ lifecycle. Source link

TAIPEI – A suspected gas explosion at a department store in the central Taiwanese city of Taichung has killed at least five people and injured seven others, the fire department said Thursday. The blast occurred on the 12th floor of the building, where construction was taking place, the department said in a statement. The food court on the 12th floor was closed at the time due to the building work, it added. Source link

UONUMA, Niigata Prefecture – More than 120 teams battled it out in a snowball fight tournament in a mountainous Japanese city on Sunday, in what the local weather bureau called the coldest air this winter to sweep the country’s northern snow belt. The 35th annual Koide International Snowball Fight in Uonuma, Niigata Prefecture, roughly 180 km northwest of Tokyo, was the largest event of its kind in Japan, said 29-year-old head judge Takuya Kitsu. Teams of five players competed in two-minute matches between two teams on a field the size of a tennis court, with points awarded for direct hits with a snowball. Source link

Glasgow – Bayern Munich scored either side of halftime through Michael Olise and Harry Kane but had to endure late pressure from host Celtic before securing a 2-1 victory in their Champions League playoff first leg on Wednesday. Olise’s stunning shot in the 45th minute put the German side in front, and Kane doubled the lead with a 49th-minute volley at the far post. Celtic, which put the ball in the net with Nicolas Kuehn, but had the effort ruled offside in the very first minute of the game, cut the deficit in the 79th minute thanks to Daizen Maeda’s close-range header to inject late drama into the match. Source link

Rory McIlroy spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump last month about the stalled PGA Tour-LIV Golf talks and says top men’s golfers must set aside hurt feelings to make a new start. The 35-year-old four-time major winner from Northern Ireland, coming off his 27th PGA Tour triumph two weeks ago at Pebble Beach, said Wednesday he played golf with Trump in early January and felt Trump supported the PGA over Saudi-backed LIV. “It was really good,” McIlroy said. “I thought we had a good discussion. I learned he’s not a fan of the LIV format. I was like, but you’ve hosted their events. He was like, yeah, but it doesn’t mean that I like it. So I think he’s on the tour’s side.” Source link